December 22, 2022 – Economic News

• December 22, 2022
• realestatelife
• Announcements, Business & Markets, Fed, Interest Rates, Politics & Economy, Rates, Real Estate, Real Estate Finance, Recession, World News, Your Real Estate Life

Jobs, Jobs, Jobs: Initial Weekly Jobless Claims were lower (better) than expected, 216K vs. est. of 222K. The more closely watched 4 week moving average moved down to 222K. Continuing Claims were 1.672M vs. est. of 1.683M.

Rainbows and Unicorns: We got the 3rd release of the 3rd QTR GDP and it continues to be magically revised upward. This time from 2.9% to 3.2%. It was originally released at 2.6%.

On Deck for Tomorrow: Personal Incomes and Spending, PCE, Durable Goods Orders, New Home Sales, UofM Consumer Sentiment,

**Early Close to the Bond Market**

The stock market crumbled, at one point the DJIA down over 700 points. Interest rates didn’t move.

Tomorrow, once again; Nov PCE, Nov durable goods orders, Nov new home sales, U. of Michigan consumer sentiment index.

PCE is attached to Nov personal income and spending, (personal income expected +0.3% after increasing 0.7% in October, spending +0.2% after increasing 0.8% in October). Nov PCE m/m estimates at +0.2%, yr./yr. +5.55 from 6.0%; core PCE m/m +0.2%, yr./yr. +4.6% from 5.0% in October. Nov durable goods orders expected -0.7% from +1.1% in October, excluding transportation orders 0.0% from 0.5%. Nov new home sales expected at 600K down from 632K. Finally, tomorrow the final U. of Michigan consumer sentiment index is thought to be the same as two weeks ago at 59.1; yesterday the Dec consumer confidence index expected at 101.0 increased to 108.3, a big miss for that report.

The average for a 30-year fixed loan was 6.27%, down from 6.31% last week, Freddie Mac said in a statement. The Federal Reserve’s campaign to cool inflation has “some ways to go,” Chair Jerome Powell said last week after the central bank increased its benchmark interest rate. That suggests mortgage costs may still climb further, remaining an affordability hurdle for would-be buyers.

Nothing today, prices and yields the same as at 9:30 am.

Tomorrow the bond and mortgage markets will lose at 2 pm., stocks never stop. Next Monday all markets closed for Christmas.